The Labour Government wants more state school children to get into the top universities but at the same time is putting an obstacle in way of them getting there. It is refusing to fund the more demanding exams for 16 year-olds - the International GCSEs or IGCSEs . These exams stretch pupils and make them better qualified to go on to the top universities.

Why on earth would the government try to stop children from less well-off families getting to the top universities? Because, I suppose, it is politically determined never to admit that the GCSEs have been dumbed down. Or perhaps, more likely, it is because the government wants to maintain the fiction that all state schools offer a realistic chance to their pupils of getting into the top universities. The governments wants parents to think that if all children are taking the same exams, then surely they all have a chance of getting in. Of course this is rubbish. And it comes from politics. Clever children at the best state schools suffer as a result. Therefore the Labour government, for political reasons, acts to prevent children from less well-off families having the best chance of getting into top universities.

The information quoted below comes from the Times Educational Supplement Magazine. Note the remarkable rise in the numbers of students at private schools now taking the IGCSEs. The top state schools are prevented from following suit.

So far the retreat from the GCSE has been confined to private schools. When one state school, Bexley Grammar in Kent, announced last year that it planned to offer the International GCSE, an alternative that focuses on final exams rather than coursework or modules, it was barred from doing so. Even though Ofqual, the qualifications regulator, has since approved IGCSEs in 15 subjects, the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has not agreed to fund it, so it cannot yet be offered in state schools.

Rod MacKinnon, the former head of Bexley Grammar who moved to the fee- paying Bristol Grammar School last summer, says his issue is not with the GCSE as such, but he feels it may not suit some pupils in some subjects. At Bexley, Mr MacKinnon tried to introduce IGCSE science on the grounds that the GCSE equivalent did not stretch the most able children. “It is a reputable examination, but my view was that in Bexley’s context, the IGCSE was more appropriate for some pupils.”

Bristol Grammar, his new school, offers the IGCSE in maths, on the basis that it provides a more challenging syllabus. The IGCSE includes calculus, for example, which pupils do not have to study for the GCSE. The school is considering offering the IGCSE in English.

The GCSE was introduced to fuse together its predecessors, O-level and CSE, into one course designed to suit children of all abilities. But Mr MacKinnon suggests it is time to accept the one-size-fits-all approach has not worked. “There are lots of really good arguments why we would want one exam for everybody, but in reality we’re not able to stretch the full ability range.”

He believes giving schools and pupils the choice of exams is a logical extension of personalised learning. If learning is to be tailored to each child’s needs, then why make everyone sit the same exam? “There is nothing profoundly essential about having one exam,” he says. “I can’t see why it should be a problem having two or three different styles.”

Much of the flight away from GCSEs has been towards the IGCSE. This year, almost half - 46 per cent - of private schools are offering at least one IGCSE, up from 34 per cent last year. Edexcel, one of two exam boards administering them, reports that the number of candidates taking the exam has almost doubled in two years, from 45,000 in 2006 to 85,000 last year. Cambridge Assessment, the other board offering IGCSEs, is coy about releasing figures, but will admit to a 20 per cent increase in entries this year.

Incidentally, the quality of coverage of education (and medical services) in the newspapers seems to have deteriorated substantially in recent years. The Daily Telegraph used to have a superb pair of journalists writing daily on education matters. As newspapers have cut back on staff in recent years, coverage of politics has been maintained but coverage of the welfare state has suffered badly.

Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in Education • Media, including BBC bias

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